Bzzzz—!!!
The azure sword light that tore across the sky gave no one aboard the flying boat any time to react!
Before the sword light even arrived, the black barrier that Senior Brother Guo Fan had thrown up around the flying boat with a thunderous roar began twisting violently under that incomparably keen sword intent!
"Enemy attack!"
At the bow, Senior Brother Guo Fan roared, his voice booming like a great bell!
His immense spiritual power, at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, erupted skyward like a volcano. A dense surge of spiritual power burst from his body and instantly merged into the flying boat's defensive barrier!
At the same time, Third Senior Brother Shi Lei, Fourth Senior Sister Han Shuang, and the other Foundation Establishment Realm experts acted without hesitation, channeling their spiritual power into the defensive barrier surrounding the hull!
In an instant, the black barrier grew even more solid, countless ghostly figures appearing across its surface and letting out silent roars.
Yet before that azure sword light, all of this still seemed so fragile.
BOOM!!!
A deafening crash made heaven and earth lose their color!
The azure sword light slammed into the black barrier!
The stalemate lasted less than a single breath!
Crack—crack, crack—
Spiderweb cracks spread wildly across the black barrier at a speed visible to the naked eye!
Bearing the brunt of the impact, Guo Fan's ordinary face flushed crimson for the first time, and he let out a muffled grunt.
The next instant, the barrier shattered with a crash!
The flying boat groaned beneath the unbearable strain. Its enormous hull tilted violently, went completely out of control, and plunged headfirst toward the vast Soul-Severing Plain below!
"Aaaah—!"
Chaos instantly erupted aboard the boat.
Countless disciples lost their footing as the boat lurched steeply, hurled into the air before slamming back onto the deck. More than a dozen were thrown clean off the flying boat, becoming tiny black specks that vanished below.
The moment the flying boat went out of control, Zhao Hao seized a protruding bone spike beside him, pressing his body as low as possible to steady himself.
His eyes remained fixed on the endless blood-red plain below.
BOOM—!
Another earth-shaking crash rang out as the flying boat's enormous hull smashed into the hard ground, burying half its bow deep in the soil.
The tremendous impact sent Zhao Hao's blood surging, but he paid it no heed. He rolled once and leaped off the hull.
Before he could find his footing—
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Hundreds of Heavenly Sword Sect disciples who had long been waiting below charged in from every direction, grouped into fierce, small-scale Three Talents Sword Formations!
Sword light wove into a web, cold and deadly!
"Enemy attack!!"
"Fight them to the death!"
The Extreme Yin Sect disciples scrambled to their feet, each fighting on their own as they chaotically unleashed their refined corpses and magical artifacts against the enemy.
In the very first exchange, more than a dozen Extreme Yin Sect disciples were cut down by the fierce sword light, their blood staining the soil of the Soul-Severing Plain.
Zhao Hao had only just landed when a cold murderous intent locked onto him.
"A fourth-layer Qi Refining demon brat. Die!"
A Heavenly Sword Sect disciple at the seventh layer of Qi Refining, his face brimming with murderous intent, flicked his longsword. It became a streak of light that thrust straight toward Zhao Hao's heart.
Zhao Hao's pupils contracted. His perfected Light Body Art had already become instinctive. He fell backward in apparent terror, twisting his body into a strange posture and sliding flat along the ground, escaping by the narrowest margin.
The sword light practically skimmed the tip of his nose!
With no concern for appearances, he rolled on all fours and scurried straight behind the remains of a refined corpse that had just been cut down, looking utterly wretched.
The sword cultivator gave a soft "Hm?" Clearly, he had not expected this useless fool to be so lucky.
He was about to follow up with another strike when another Demonic Sect disciple rushed in and engaged him, leaving him unable to break away for the moment.
Hidden behind the refined corpse, Zhao Hao "panted" violently. In truth, he had already pushed his perfected Qi Gazing Art to its limit.
In his eyes, the entire battlefield became a world composed of countless clusters of qi.
The Heavenly Sword Sect disciples' qi clusters were sharp and pure, with faint connections between them that formed an invisible net.
On the Extreme Yin Sect's side, however, the qi clusters were impure and chaotic. Yin qi, corpse qi, and blood qi mingled into a disorderly mass.
Just then, he witnessed an Extreme Yin Sect senior brother at the eighth layer of Qi Refining being surrounded by three seventh-layer Qi Refining sword cultivators in formation.
As three streams of sword light revolved around him, that senior brother's protective magical artifact shattered instantly, and the web of swords sliced his entire body into more than a dozen chunks of flesh!
What was terrifying was that the moment the senior brother died, not only did the qi cluster representing his vitality go out, but even his departing soul had no time to escape. The invisible power of the sword formation ground it apart completely, reducing it to nothing!
His soul was scattered into oblivion!
Zhao Hao felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.
This wasn't a war at all. It was a gigantic millstone grinding flesh and blood! Stay here, and enemies would surround him on every side!
He hesitated no longer. Continuing to play the coward frightened out of his wits, he screamed "Don't kill me!" in terror as he crawled on all fours through the chaotic battlefield toward its edge.
His movements seemed utterly panicked, yet every time, he narrowly slipped through the gaps between attacks. To anyone watching, the brat simply had ridiculous dumb luck, his tenacity for survival beyond belief.
At last, he edged his way to the outskirts of the battlefield.
Not far away, a refined corpse was detonated, throwing up a huge cloud of dust and sowing chaos.
Now!
Seizing his chance, Zhao Hao poured his spiritual power into his feet without hesitation!
Perfected Earth Escape Art!
Under cover of the chaos, his body sank straight into the hard ground beneath his feet without making the slightest sound, vanishing completely from the battlefield.
Underground, Zhao Hao dared not pause for even a moment. He fled ten li away from the battlefield in one go.
Only when less than half the spiritual power in his dantian remained did he quietly emerge behind an enormous tree trunk in a secluded mountain forest.
"Huff... huff..."
He leaned against the trunk, his face pale, drawing great, ragged breaths, his entire body soaked in sweat.
But before he could even catch his breath—
"Hehe... this little Demonic Sect brat is rather clever. Quite a fast runner, too!"
Without warning, a woman's clear, sweet laughter, tinged with mockery, drifted down from overhead not far away.
Another woman's voice followed, laden with bone-deep hatred.
"Don't let him go! My elder sister died horribly at the hands of their Demonic Sect disciples. Not a single one of them is any good!"
Zhao Hao stiffened and abruptly looked up!
On a thick branch twenty zhang away stood two women dressed in white.
The woman in front had an ethereal air and was watching him with keen interest. Astonishingly, she was a cultivator at the peak of Qi Refining!
The hate-filled woman beside her had also just reached the ninth layer of Qi Refining.
Zhao Hao did not even have time to say a word.
A flash of killing intent crossed the ninth-layer Qi Refining woman's eyes. She gave him no chance whatsoever!
At her command, a flying sword gleaming with cold light tore through the air like a bolt of white lightning, shooting straight toward Zhao Hao's heart!